Client/server

docs/jargon-org.txt

@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@ Free Documentation License".
 
 * Generated
 
-This file last generated Wednesday, 17 October 2018 08:29AM UTC
+This file last generated Wednesday, 17 October 2018 09:01AM UTC
 
 * Glossary
 ** (
@@ -2874,6 +2874,9 @@ n. A syndrome of certain Iomega ZIP drives, named for the clicking noise that is
 *** clickbait
 Things on the web which are intended to attract average users to click on them for the purposes of generating advertising income for the site owner. Web sites with advertising were typically paid based upon the number of visitors - known as "unique impressions" - within a given amount of time.
 
+*** client/server
+In the beginning there were just lone computers networked to dumb terminals. Early computer networks from the 1950s to the 1970s were usually just one computer with multiple keyboards, teletypes, printers and displays attached to them. From the late 1970s onwards with the appearance of the first personal computers this started to change. Early PCs were a lot less powerful than the existing mainframes and minicomputers and so a division of labor between them made sense and the client/server paradigm was born. The server stored and often also batch processed data which it obtained from networked clients. Local computing on client PCs could better handle things like realtime graphics display with minimal latency. The client/server paradigm continues today in the form of cloud computing, where data is often not stored on phones or laptops but on a cloud server somewhere. Contrast with mesh network.
+
 *** clobber
 vt. To overwrite, usually unintentionally: I walked off the end of the array and clobbered the stack. Compare mung , scribble , trash , and smash the stack.
 
@@ -5719,6 +5722,9 @@ n. [XEROX PARC] Writing through a pointer that doesn't point to what you think i
 *** menuitis
 /men`yooi:tis/ , n. Notional disease suffered by software with an obsessively simple-minded menu interface and no escape. Hackers find this intensely irritating and much prefer the flexibility of command-line or language-style interfaces, especially those customizable via macros or a special-purpose language in which one can encode useful hacks. See user-obsequious , drool-proof paper , WIMP environment , for the rest of us.
 
+*** mesh network
+A network in which there is no clear difference between clients and servers. Instead each computer is a peer and does processing, data storage and routing of network traffic. In the ideal mesh network data is content addressable, such that it may be seeded by any peer, and data ownership is regulated via cryptography. Due to the lack of bottlenecks (servers with limited capacity), in theory mesh networks are far more scalable than client/server, and may be the eventual form that the internet takes. The existence of giant and highly inefficient data centers within the current cloud computing paradigm is really an attempt to solve the limited server capacity problem, but this may eventually be superceded by mesh. For optimal performance the apps within a mesh network should work in a peer-to-peer manner using data which is content addressable. Attempting to run an app designed for client/server within a mesh usually results in very poor performance. Since so much current software is designed for client/server (often subconsciously, since the paradigm is hegemonic) this is why mesh networks currently remain a minority topic. Existing examples of large mesh networks are freifunk and guifinet. Common mesh protocols are batman, BMX, OLSR and Babel. Contrast with client server.
+
 *** mess-dos
 /mesdos/ , n. [semi-obsolescent now that DOS is] Derisory term for MS-DOS. Often followed by the ritual banishing Just say No! See MS-DOS. Most hackers (even many MS-DOS hackers) loathed MS-DOS for its single-tasking nature, its limits on application size, its nasty primitive interface, and its ties to IBMness and Microsoftness (see fear and loathing ). Also mess-loss , messy-dos , mess-dog , mess-dross , mush-dos , and various combinations thereof. In Ireland and the U.K. it is even sometimes called Domestos after a brand of toilet cleanser.
 

docs/jargon.html

@@ -18,7 +18,7 @@ Free Documentation License".
       </p>
       <H2>Generated</H2>
       <p>
-This file last generated Wednesday, 17 October 2018 08:29AM UTC
+This file last generated Wednesday, 17 October 2018 09:01AM UTC
 
       </p>
       <H2>Glossary</H2>
@@ -3429,6 +3429,10 @@ This file last generated Wednesday, 17 October 2018 08:29AM UTC
         <p>
         Things on the web which are intended to attract average users to click on them for the purposes of generating advertising income for the site owner. Web sites with advertising were typically paid based upon the number of visitors - known as "unique impressions" - within a given amount of time.
         </p>
+        <H4>client/server</H4>
+        <p>
+        In the beginning there were just lone computers networked to dumb terminals. Early computer networks from the 1950s to the 1970s were usually just one computer with multiple keyboards, teletypes, printers and displays attached to them. From the late 1970s onwards with the appearance of the first personal computers this started to change. Early PCs were a lot less powerful than the existing mainframes and minicomputers and so a division of labor between them made sense and the client/server paradigm was born. The server stored and often also batch processed data which it obtained from networked clients. Local computing on client PCs could better handle things like realtime graphics display with minimal latency. The client/server paradigm continues today in the form of cloud computing, where data is often not stored on phones or laptops but on a cloud server somewhere. Contrast with mesh network.
+        </p>
         <H4>clobber</H4>
         <p>
         vt. To overwrite, usually unintentionally: I walked off the end of the array and clobbered the stack. Compare mung , scribble , trash , and smash the stack.
@@ -6679,6 +6683,10 @@ This file last generated Wednesday, 17 October 2018 08:29AM UTC
         <p>
         /men`yooi:tis/ , n. Notional disease suffered by software with an obsessively simple-minded menu interface and no escape. Hackers find this intensely irritating and much prefer the flexibility of command-line or language-style interfaces, especially those customizable via macros or a special-purpose language in which one can encode useful hacks. See user-obsequious , drool-proof paper , WIMP environment , for the rest of us.
         </p>
+        <H4>mesh network</H4>
+        <p>
+        A network in which there is no clear difference between clients and servers. Instead each computer is a peer and does processing, data storage and routing of network traffic. In the ideal mesh network data is content addressable, such that it may be seeded by any peer, and data ownership is regulated via cryptography. Due to the lack of bottlenecks (servers with limited capacity), in theory mesh networks are far more scalable than client/server, and may be the eventual form that the internet takes. The existence of giant and highly inefficient data centers within the current cloud computing paradigm is really an attempt to solve the limited server capacity problem, but this may eventually be superceded by mesh. For optimal performance the apps within a mesh network should work in a peer-to-peer manner using data which is content addressable. Attempting to run an app designed for client/server within a mesh usually results in very poor performance. Since so much current software is designed for client/server (often subconsciously, since the paradigm is hegemonic) this is why mesh networks currently remain a minority topic. Existing examples of large mesh networks are freifunk and guifinet. Common mesh protocols are batman, BMX, OLSR and Babel. Contrast with client server.
+        </p>
         <H4>mess-dos</H4>
         <p>
         /mesdos/ , n. [semi-obsolescent now that DOS is] Derisory term for MS-DOS. Often followed by the ritual banishing Just say No! See MS-DOS. Most hackers (even many MS-DOS hackers) loathed MS-DOS for its single-tasking nature, its limits on application size, its nasty primitive interface, and its ties to IBMness and Microsoftness (see fear and loathing ). Also mess-loss , messy-dos , mess-dog , mess-dross , mush-dos , and various combinations thereof. In Ireland and the U.K. it is even sometimes called Domestos after a brand of toilet cleanser.

entries/client_server.txt

@@ -0,0 +1,20 @@
+client/server
+
+In the beginning there were just lone computers networked to dumb terminals.
+Early computer networks from the 1950s to the 1970s were usually just one
+computer with multiple keyboards, teletypes, printers and displays attached
+to them.
+
+From the late 1970s onwards with the appearance of the first personal
+computers this started to change. Early PCs were a lot less powerful than
+the existing mainframes and minicomputers and so a division of labor
+between them made sense and the client/server paradigm was born.
+The server stored and often also batch processed data which it obtained
+from networked clients. Local computing on client PCs could better handle
+things like realtime graphics display with minimal latency.
+
+The client/server paradigm continues today in the form of cloud computing,
+where data is often not stored on phones or laptops but on a cloud server
+somewhere.
+
+Contrast with mesh network.